VOV.VN - The consumer finance market in the year ahead is predicted to struggle making any significant breakthroughs, despite lending interest rates witnessing a downward trend, according to experts.

The COVID-19 pandemic is significantly changing the landscape of the consumer credit market as consumers tend to tighten their budget and pay more attention to healthcare, environment and lifestyle as well as switching to online shopping.

Though Vietnam’s outstanding consumer credit almost tripled over the last decade, its share of total outstanding loans is yet to keep pace with that of its regional nations. There is plenty of room for improvement in the time to come, industry insiders have said.

Vietnam had the highest rate of new digital service consumers in the Southeast Asia region last year, it was reported at the recent World Mobile Broadband & ICT 2021 conference in Hanoi.

Vietnam’s telecom carriers stopped more than 22,000 spam calls in the first two months of this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economies and commodity markets globally, including Vietnam, and domestic prices will continue to fluctuate and be more closely linked to the fluctuations of raw material and fuel prices on the world market.

The fast moving consumer goods sector is forecast to grow at 6.4% this year in the country’s four major cities and 8.7% in rural areas, according to global data and consulting company Kantar Worldpanel.

VOV.VN - Israel currently represents the nation’s third largest export market in the Middle East, behind only the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey, according to figures compiled during the opening two months of the year by the Vietnamese trade office in Israel.

The consumer price index (CPI) in the capital city grew up 1.8% in February from the previous month, according to the Hanoi Statistics Office.

The consumer price index (CPI) in the southern largest economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City increased 1.19% in February from the previous month, according to the city’s Statistics Office.